Thus he spoke very fiercely and in a low voice, his head held low and his arms crossed upon his breast, and I saw that he shook with passion.  Even then, though I was very much afraid, for god as I was, a nod from this mighty king would have sent me to death by torment, I wondered at the folly of one who in everything else was so wise.  Why should he doubt me thus and allow superstition to drag him down to ruin?  To-day I see the answer.  Montezuma did not these things of himself, but because the hand of destiny worked with his hand, and the voice of destiny spoke in his voice.  The gods of the Aztecs were false gods indeed, but I for one believe that they had life and intelligence, for those hideous shapes of stone were the habitations of devils, and the priests spoke truth when they said that the sacrifice of men was pleasing to their gods.

To these devils the king went for counsel through the priests, and now this doom was on them, that they must give false counsel to their own destruction, and to the destruction of those who worshipped them, as was decreed by One more powerful than they.

Now while we were talking the sun had sunk swiftly, so that all the world was dark.  But the light still lingered on the snowy crests of the volcans Popo and Ixtac, staining them an awful red.  Never before to my sight had the shape of the dead woman whose everlasting bier is Ixtac’s bulk, seemed so clear and wonderful as on that night, for either it was so or my fancy gave it the very shape and colour of a woman’s corpse steeped in blood and laid out for burial.  Nor was it my phantasy alone, for when Montezuma had finished upbraiding me he chanced to look up, and his eyes falling on the mountain remained fixed there.

‘Look now, Teule!’ he said, presently, with a solemn laugh; ’yonder lies the corpse of the nations of Anahuac washed in a water of blood and made ready for burial.  Is she not terrible in death?’

As he spoke the words and turned to go, a sound of doleful wailing came from the direction of the mountain, a very wild and unearthly sound that caused the blood in my veins to stand still.  Now Montezuma caught my arm in his fear, and we gazed together on Ixtac, and it seemed to us that this wonder happened.  For in that red and fearful light the red figure of the sleeping woman arose, or appeared to rise, from its bier of stone.  It arose slowly like one who awakes from sleep, and presently it stood upright upon the mountain’s brow, towering high into the air.  There it stood a giant and awakened corpse, its white wrappings stained with blood, and we trembled to see it.

For a while the wraith remained thus gazing towards the city of Tenoctitlan, then suddenly it threw its vast arms upward as though in grief, and at that moment the night rushed in upon it and covered it, while the sound of wailing died slowly away.